Power tools are conventionally used in the installation of anchors in substantially rigid materials. One well-known use of these power tools is in the installation process of wedge anchors in concrete, masonry, and rock. When such an anchor is placed, a power tool is used in a rotary hammer manner to impart combined rotational and axial impact blows to a particular area of material. This is typically accomplished with a rotary hammer drill using a drilling bit structured for drilling in such material. When a sufficiently sized hole has been drilled out of the rigid material, the rotary hammer drill is set aside and the anchor is placed and set. The common practice within the construction industry for placing and setting the anchor is to use a handheld hammer to push the wedge anchor into the drilled hole. This is a labor-intensive effort and is somewhat dangerous and difficult especially when attempting to install anchors overhead off of ladders. This can be especially difficult if the anchor is being placed in a ceiling portion as the need to look up can impair an operator's balance and orientation.
In the installation of wedge anchors, there is no way of protecting the hand that is holding and placing the wedge anchor in the drilled hole while it is being driven with the hammer. Installation of wedge anchors still requires the operator to set aside the rotary hammer, balance themselves, and manually hammer the wedge anchor to set it. In addition, to the physical demands imparted by this manual hammering, it can be extremely difficult to set such anchors where the working area is constrained and limited area exists for the workman to both hold the wedge anchor and swing the hammer.
Additionally, to achieve a high quality of attachment of the wedge anchor to the concrete or masonry structure, it is necessary that the wedge anchor be fully driven to the proper depth in the concrete or masonry. This is necessary to assure the performance margins of the anchor are attained. Such margins can only be achieved when the wedge anchor is fully and properly positioned within the concrete. Larger wedge anchors require considerably more energy and force to properly position them in the concrete. Because of this requirement for increased force, the wedge anchor can be easily damaged by glancing blows while hand hammering. This force requirement increases the difficulty of installation in difficult conditions and anchor failure can often occur because of improper and inadequate installation.
Therefore, as already stated, the proper installation and placement of the wedge anchor is necessary for the proper performance of the wedge anchor. The current practice and method of installing wedge anchors is physically exhausting and dangerous, especially when accomplished while working from ladders or overhead, the location where this type of anchor is most often used. These and other problems in the conventional art are addressed by embodiments of the present invention.